This new edition of George MacDonald's 1890 novel is updated and introduced by Michael Phillips as Volume 31 in The Cullen Collection.

Often billed as a young reader’s book and linked to Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood and Gutta Percha Willie, this story, which opens in Italy and in which MacDonald describes the major earthquake of 1887 which rocked their home on the Mediterranean coast, is not technically a “children’s story.” It is about the boy Clare Skymer, but is written in a more sophisticated linguistic style than his fairy tales and pure children’s fare.

A Rough Shaking, published in 1890, reprises two of MacDonald’s favorite themes, Clare’s love for animals (and belief in their immortality), and his quest for fatherhood. MacDonald traces young Clare’s life having to fend for himself after the loss of his parents in the earthquake and being taken from Italy back to England. His ingenuity in not only learning to survive on his own, but keeping his goodness intact while trying in some way to help everyone he meets, may be viewed as a fictional portrayal of childhood Christlikeness.

Overlooked by many critics because Clare—as is said of several of MacDonald’s characters—is “too good to be true,” his personal quest, and his determination to be “good,” links Clare’s story to the very best in all MacDonald’s books.

 

279 pages